The middle schoolers started learning about the element of color in this Pop Art inspired art project. They saw examples of famous Pop Artists as well as learned the impact that visual culture has on their lives. They came to see that they are constantly bombarded by logos and products. Pop art easily blurs the line between advertising and what we consider art. They even got to see a clip of Wayne's World and how Mike Meyers spoofed this phenomenon.
The middle schoolers started off slow by reviewing the basics of color mixing, using acrylic paints. They used the primary colors to mix the secondary and tertiary colors. After that, they saw how they could add white, gray, or black to any of the colors on the color wheel to create tints, tones, and shades. Even though some students were already pros at color mixing, going back to the basics is still important before jumping into a project that revolves around color mixing. Once the middle schoolers prepared a food or candy wrapper reference of their choosing, they got started on making a grid drawing of that reference. This allowed them to see the grid lines of their small references and proportionately convert the images they saw onto the larger grid of their paper. Once drawn, they were ready to put their knowledge of color mixing, as well as five different painting techniques, to use in their picture. Demonstrating these painting techniques may have been the most challenging part of the project but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how my middle schoolers tackled these challenges. It is not only obvious that they have finished this project with knew found knowledge of painting but they all have wonderful paintings to show for it!
The middle schoolers started off slow by reviewing the basics of color mixing, using acrylic paints. They used the primary colors to mix the secondary and tertiary colors. After that, they saw how they could add white, gray, or black to any of the colors on the color wheel to create tints, tones, and shades. Even though some students were already pros at color mixing, going back to the basics is still important before jumping into a project that revolves around color mixing. Once the middle schoolers prepared a food or candy wrapper reference of their choosing, they got started on making a grid drawing of that reference. This allowed them to see the grid lines of their small references and proportionately convert the images they saw onto the larger grid of their paper. Once drawn, they were ready to put their knowledge of color mixing, as well as five different painting techniques, to use in their picture. Demonstrating these painting techniques may have been the most challenging part of the project but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how my middle schoolers tackled these challenges. It is not only obvious that they have finished this project with knew found knowledge of painting but they all have wonderful paintings to show for it!